The hedges are about 2.8M tall and we are looking to replace them with something 2.5M tall. It can’t be any lower since it needs to provide screening for a railway embankment. Any suggested alternatives would be welcome. I guess a brick wall would be the ideal solution, but that would be far more expensive.I would reduce your hedge to the smallest size possible so that it still does the job before you do it. Most hedges can be made lower and one or two stems taken off the ends which saves a lot of work.
According to The History Guy, Phillips screws were developed in the American marine & aircraft industry because of the very thin alu & wood sheets being used were very prone to damage when overenthusiastic / poorly trained fitters were using slotted screws with power drivers. Thus the Phillips screw then the Pozidrive came about so they would cam out at a certain torque thus preventing damage to said panels.
My preference is for Robertson screws, the standard in Canada.![]()
The jury is out...
"The design is often criticized for its tendency to cam out at lower torque levels than other "cross head" designs. There has long been a popular belief that this was a deliberate feature of the design, to assemble aluminium aircraft without overtightening the fasteners. Extensive evidence is lacking for this specific narrative, and the feature is not mentioned in the original patents."
Crying out loud the price per panel £173 put this tight Yorkshieman off straight away.
If the 'history guy' is whom I'm thinking it is then he's talking absolute bollards.
Have you ever tried to put a slotted screw in with a 'power driver', next to impossible without the bit wandering off and gouging the workpiece, hence the need for a crosshead design to avoid this
My experience after working many years making shopfitting cabinetry and display units and fitting hundreds of thousands of screws is that once a bit starts to 'cam out' it should be discarded and a new bit used. I've even got screwdriver bits with Diamond coating to prevent wear to the bit
Crying out loud the price per panel £173 put this tight Yorkshieman off straight away.
We put in slotted posts and gravel boards of concrete, with good-quality wooden panels. It's the posts that rot, and any wood that touches the ground. Decent, treated wood panels last almost forever.
A local fencing contractor has suggested concrete slotted posts with concrete gravel boards and Treated C24 Carcassing Timber Boards (1830mm x 150mm x 47mm) screwed into vertical timber rails per the following diagram:
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Searching the internet I don't seem to be able to find any examples of this type of fencing construction. The closest I can find is "acoustic fencing", however this uses timber boards which are tongue and grooved. The main concern I have therefore with the above fencing construction suggested by the fencing contractor is that if the individual timber boards start to bow/warp over time, then gaps will start to open up between the individual timber boards because they are not tongue and grooved. Admittedly the individual boards will be screwed into vertical timber rails, but I'm not sure if this will be sufficient to prevent significant gaps opening up over time.
I'd appreciate therefore the opinions of anyone with knowledge / experience in this area.
The timber boards will be overlapped, so you shouldn't get gaps appearing between them.
Like this sort of thing
https://www.buyfencingdirect.co.uk/super-panel-65
These are quite thick timbers (47mm) which sit on top of each other with no overlap.
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